Space Empires - The Story.
Rise from the Ashes Years after a world war which almost decimated the entire human race, the remaining countries of Earth have decided to put aside their differences and established the Terran Alliance in an effort to usher in a new era of peace and progress and further the goals of humanity as a whole. The Terran Alliance left the war torn Earth to look for a new place to call home. Along their journey, they came across an ancient derelict alien vessel containing highly sophisticated technologies which they dubbed "The Ark". The Terran Alliance scientists were able to reverse engineer the ancient ship's technology from which they were able to develop advanced technological breakthroughs such as FTL (faster-than-light) travel drives which propelled humanity beyond the Solar System. Thanks to these discoveries, the Alliance was able to establish colonies in dozens of star systems and expand its territory across the galaxy. First Contact Decades after the Terran Alliance discovered "The Ark", scientists working on the ancient vessel unknowingly triggered the ship's communication systems. A distress signal was sent to the original owners of the ship, the ancient race known as the Amon'krie. They are considered one of the oldest sentient races in the galaxy, and for thousands of years they have sent vessels to different sectors of the galaxy to seek out new civilizations to share their beliefs and philosophies. They have long sought this missing ship, and they have sent out to retrieve it. They arrived at the Sol system where the Ark was found, and the Terran Alliance anticipated their arrival. The humans have led the Amon'krie to their derelict vessel where they were able to access the ship's memory core. Here they found out that their ancestors were able to make contact with Earth's ancient civilizations, but they decided to leave because the humans are a prideful and warmongering race. This sparked a misunderstanding with the Amon'krie which led them to open fire on Terran Alliance ships. This sparked the first conflict between the Terran Alliance and the Amon'krie Continuum. The Galactic Confederation Decades have passed since the start of the conflict between Amon'krie and Terran Alliance. Casualties have mounted on both sides, and after an unofficial diplomatic meeting between the two sides on the planet Novus Prime, the two races have agreed to end all hostilities. This heralded the creation of the Galactic Confederation, governed by the Novus Council which aims to conduct peaceful solutions to future conflicts among sentient races across the galaxy. Through the Amon'krie, the council was able to contact and induct several other sentient races such as the proud Norak Empire and the mysterious Xiati. The Novus Council appointed the wise Amon'krie High Priestess Anakh'aten to lead the Galactic Confederation which ushered in a new era of peace and progress among the races. They also established the Galactic Market, a galaxy-wide commercial service from different companies which caters to all races. The Xi-Chung Invasion From the far reaches of the galaxy, an insectoid race known as the Xi-Chung has arrived on Confederation space and has begun invading Terran Alliance colonies. The Terran Alliance Fleet's leader, Grand Admiral Kozlov, has petitioned the rest of the Confederation to create an Armada made up of all races to repel this threat to their territories. The Amon'krie Continuum despite agreeing with the creation of the Confederation Armada, decided that they should handle the issue diplomatically as this ensuing conflict could be the result of a misunderstanding much like their first conflicts with the Terran Alliance. However, the Xi-Chung, despite all attempts have not answered to any form of communication and continued their relentless assault of Confederation worlds. During this war, many colonies were lost and dozens of races have lost faith in the Confederation and the Council, including the Norak Empire which sealed away their system from the rest of the galaxy. Despite protests from the Terran Alliance, the Amon'krie have decided to act independently to resolve the war with the Xi-Chung through peaceful means. High Priestess Anakh'aten led the Amon'krie fleet and searched for the Xi-Chung homeworld in an attempt to communicate and pacify whoever leads the aggressive race with her powerful telepathic abilities. With their advanced navigation systems, they were able to locate the Xi-Chung's homeworld and have begun preparations for this desparate mission. Unbeknownst to them however, Grand Admiral Koslov has been monitoring the activities of the Amon'krie and has been working on a desparate mission of his own: a massive-scale operation to exterminate the Xi-chung homeworld using highly advanced Temporal weaponry developed with aid of the Xiati race designed to tear a hole in time-space to consume everything in the area. The Amon'krie departed for the Xi-Chung homeworld, with the Terran Alliance secretly following in pursuit. As the Amon'Krie arrived at the Xi-Chung's home system of Praxus Gamma, they were surprised that they were not met with hostility, and it was as if the Xi-Chung knows of their intentions of diplomacy. Grand Admiral Kozlov took this chance to enact his plan, and as soon as his fleets arrived in the Xi-Chung homeworld, Terran Alliance warships unloaded their Temporal Bomb payloads on the Xi-Chung's home planet. The combined force of these powerful weapons consumed everything on Praxus Gamma, including the Xi-Chung's home planet, as well as the Terran Alliance and Amon'krie Continium fleets. With millions dead, including Grand Admiral Kozlov and High Priestess Anakh'aten and the desctruction of the Xi-Chung's homeworld, this incident will forever be remembered as "The Grand Genocide", one of the worst tragedies in Galactic Confederation history. With the destruction and loss of their leaders and breeding grounds, the Xi-Chung fleets have lost their morale and were swiftly defeated by the Confederation Armada, which was equally demoralized due to the recent events. As the last of the Xi-Chung were wiped out, member races of the Novus Council have started to blame each other to who should be responsible for the tragedy in Praxus Gamma. The desparate actions of the Terran Alliance have soured their relationship with the Amon'krie Continuum. The Galactic Confederation and the Novus Council's foundations are now starting to deteriorate. The Dawn of the Norak Empire The Galactic Confederation has been left in shambles after the Xi-Chung war. The different races have kept diplomatic communications to a minimum. Despite the sour relationships between the races, the Galactic Market has still been kept in operation. During this dark time, a mysterious report has been received from one of the probes patrolling the borders of the system occupied by the Norak Empire, one of the races which sealed themselves during the Xi-Chung War. A dark cloud has started to consume the Norak Empire's system, and no probes were able to remain intact after entering it. No communications could be established with the Norak, and because of this the Council has decided to send the Confederation armada to set up a blockade in the fringes of the system to prepare for the worst. After years without any incidents, the Confederations fleets who have gathered along the edges of the cloud are still trying to gain contact with the Norak and investigate the mysterious cloud surrounding their system. Suddenly, the dark cloud begins to rapidly dissipate. The Confederation fleets are horrified and awed with what they found: every planet in the system has been transmogrified into a sort of techno-organic material, and the Norak system's star has been replaced by a massive head-shaped object. Without warning, their ships were shot down by powerful weapons from mysterious vessels. These vessels were unlike anything the Confederation fleets have encountered before, and they were easily overcome by the relentless assault. When the smoke cleared, a transmission was sent to the Novus Council: "We are the Norak Empire, surrender to us or be destroyed!" At the Galactic Council's headquarters in Novus Prime, high tensions have erupted as the once allied races convened on an emergency meeting to discuss the discovery of the Norak Empire's mysterious resurgence and transformation. They have ascertained that the Norak Empire is possessing highly advanced technology which they could not have developed in such a short time after they left the Confederation. Suddenly, a representative of the Norak Empire appeared on the main transmission screen before the Council. The representative proclaimed that a powerful being of immeasurable power, called Xel-Nathu, has arrived on their system without warning. The being consumed their system's star, but despite this, its arrival released dark energies which transformed the Norak into techno-organic beings with heightened physical and intellectual abilities. Because of this 'gift', they believe that Xel-Nathu is a god which has handpicked them as its heralds, and in return for these 'gifts' this being is demanding stars and worlds to consume. They demanded that all the races of Galactic Confederation should bow down to the Norak Empire and their god, surrender their occupied star systems and accept their fate as the slaves of the Norak or face imminent destruction. There was widespread commotion in the Council Hall, but the Amon'krie Matriarch scoffed at the Norak's demands, and declared that the Amon'krie Continuum believes that the Norak are the heralds of darkness which will exterminate all life in the galaxy according to the ancient Amon'krie prophecies, and that they will do everything to make sure that the Norak will not succeed. The Terran Alliance also believes that the Norak Empire is a threat to galactic security, and they will not bow down to their demands. Hearing the reply of the Council majority, the Norak representative let out a wry smile and ended the transmission, leaving the tattered council to contemplate on their fates. The Battle for Supremacy With their own agendas regarding the Norak Empire, they races of the Galactic Confederation have decided to close all channels of communication, save for those used in trade and commerce. While not at open war, the bitter relations between the Amon'krie Continuum and the Terran Alliance have resulted in several conflicts between the two and the further degradation of the Galactic Confederation and the Novus Council. The Terrans consider the Norak Empire as a threat, however they want to study and control the mysterious being called Xel-Nathu to gain more answers to the secrets of the Norak's dramatic transformation and their highly advanced technology which could help strengthen the Terran Alliance further. The Amon'krie Continuum believe that this being is a herald of darkness as decreed in their prophecies, and that all races, including the Terrans, should make an effort to destroy it or be faced with the extinction of all life in the galaxy. The Norak Empire is slowly starting to expand their dominion into nearby systems, feeding their god Xel-Nathu with worlds and stars from other races since they believe Xel-Nathu will gain more power and somehow free itself from its otherworldly shackles and devour all other life in the galaxy while providing the Norak with more power. What these races are not aware of however, is that the being they call Xel-Nathu is an extradimensional being which came from the dark recesses of dimensional space, which only arrived at the galaxy because it was lured by powerful energy sources which it feeds on, and that the Norak's dramatic transformation was only an accident; an after-effect of the being's partial arrival in this dimension. Whoever manages to destroy, to subdue or to unleash the star devourer called Xel-Nathu will gain power, fame, respect or devotion, in effect becoming the uncontested rulers of the universe. The battle for supremacy has begun.